I don't typically follow sports in any sort of religious capacity, but with my pickleball adventures, it was only natural that the US Open would inevitably come up. As a result, I inadvertently got caught up in the semi-finals as Frances Tiafoe is someone who has been on my radar and happens to also be from Maryland!
As expected, the social media algorithms did their thing and I was recommended a video of Tiafoe talking about his training and how he decided to embark on the "75 Hard" challenge as a way to mentally reset and regain his focus.
What is the 75 Hard Challenge?
The 75 Hard Challenge was created by Andy Frisella around 2020 and is touted to be a "transformative mental toughness program." In other words, rather than a fitness challenge, this one was geared towards training discipline and mental resilience (which is something I'm always looking to improve at).
The rules are that you must complete the following every day (no exceptions):
- Pick a diet and stick to it. No cheat meals. No alcohol.
- Read 10 pages of a non-fiction book.
- Drink a gallon (128 oz) of water.
- Take a progress picture.
- Workout twice a day for 45 minutes. One workout must be outside.
If you miss any day, you have to start all over.
Now, while it's couched as "not a fitness challenge," the only thing that felt not fitness related to me was the reading task. Everything was fitness / health related, which is totally fine, but it didn't quite resonate with what I was looking for.
What about the 75 Soft Challenge then?
As expected, when the 75 Hard Challenge became trendy and popular, there was a natural pushback to its framework and another group adapted it to a less rigid and more accessible routine.
The rules are typically as follows:
- Eat well in general and avoid alcohol except for special occasions.
- Exercise for 45 minutes once a day, with one day of active recovery.
- Drink 3 liters (~101 oz) of water every day.
- Read 10 pages of any book each day.
If you miss any days, this challenge is more forgiving and doesn't ask that you start the challenge all over again.
While I appreciate the intention of this challenge, I wanted something with more intensity to challenge me forward on my own journey.
So, I had a problem. The 75 Hard is too narrow for my liking, and yet the 75 Soft felt like it isn't challenging enough. Well, like any good engineer, it means it's time to create my own solution!
My 75 Solid Challenge
The idea of the 75 Solid challenge is to be a hybrid approach of the two challenges. The goal is still to strengthen discipline and mental resilience, but be more well-rounded in terms of establishing a better foundation.
Here are the five areas I determined would have the best ripple effect as far as fundamentals go:
- Fitness - Improve energy capacity and physical endurance for longer working sessions
- Health - Pay more attention to body maintenance to minimize things mental fatigue
- Writing - Provide opportunities to practice self-expression and ideas that come from within and not from an AI prompt
- Reading - Increase capacity for ingesting information the ability to comprehend large amounts of information is more important than ever
- Mental - Enhance resilience against the influx of noise and opinions to better attune to the things that matter most to me
With this in mind, here are my 5 tasks that I intend to accomplish every day for the next 75 days.
- Exercise for at least 45 minutes
- Drink 1 gallon (128 oz)
- Write and complete at least one publishable artifact
- Read at least 10 minutes of a non-fiction book
- Meditate for at least 10 minutes
Similar to the 75 Hard Challenge, if I miss any of the tasks for a particular day, the challenge starts all over.
There is no front-loading task challenges. For example, you can't read 30 pages today and not have to read for the next two days. The goal is consistency and repetition rather than big pushes of effort.
Closing thoughts
Like any good challenge though, there needs to be a way to track accountability. So, my plan is to post on my Bluesky / X accounts using a format inspired by the Wordle format:
My 75 Solid Challenge (Day X/75)
🏋️♂️ 45 min exercise
🚰 128 oz fluids
📝 1 writing artifact
📖 10 pages of a non-fiction book
🧘 10 minutes of meditation
How will it go? Only time will tell. Challenge accepted!